Part I of this series which ends with this Part III, dealt with the role of the media, Facebook, Twitter and other means of social mobilization. This was followed by Part II which dealt with the role of the police and other security forces in regard to "Shooting with Live Ammunition and Death by Being Run-Over by Vehicles." Now this Part III deals with 3 issues: (a) Thugs (Baltagiahs) intimidating peaceful protesters; (b) Extra judicial arrests; (c) Security break-down.
Taken in its totality, the Fact-Finders have unmistakeably placed the onus on the old regime for these gross infractions of constitutional rights of the Egyptian citizen to peacefully demonstrate. The weight of evidence of all kinds, including visual evidence, is overwhelming. The direct impact of that Report could be seen in the recent court of appeals ruling to retry Mubarak, his two sons and other suspects for their alleged commission, directly or indirectly, of actions whereby nearly 900 demonstrators were killed and more than 6000 were injured in various Egyptian provinces.
The Report of the Fact-Finding Commission covers the critical period from January 25 to February 11, 2011, with the latter day signaling the fall of Mubarak from his 32-year old position as Egypt's dictatorial President.
With regard to the thugs (Baltagiahs; quasi-militias), the Report focuses on the period from February 2, to February 3, 2011. During those 24 hours, bloody confrontations took place all over Egypt. The locales were Tahrir Square and its equivalents in many of the Egyptian Provinces.
The Report calls that Wednesday "Bloody Wednesday." On that morning, the Mubarak regime supporters poured into Mustafa Mahmoud Square located at the Arab League Avenue. Other supporters came from other Cairo quarters, thus swelling the numbers of counter-protesters. As per the testimony of some leaders of the National Party (the Governing Party), those activists were instructed to prevent the anti-Mubarak demonstrators from entering Tahrir Square.
How about the throngs of anti-Mubarak demonstrators who were already camped inside Tahrir? The orders were to besiege the occupiers of Tahrir within whose ranks, elements of the secret Egyptian police were infiltrated to commit intimidation and anarchy. But since that iconic public square is surrounded by high buildings, both business and residential, the anti-democracy infiltrators also ascended to rooftops.
To the anti-Mubarak elements, rooftops became the high ground from which they threw stones, marble tiles, and molotov cocktails on the heads of the unarmed demonstrators below. Simultaneously, the Fact-Finders state, the police and thug elements within Tahrir Square used their guns, rubber bullets, and tear gas canisters in attacking the pro-democracy throngs.
The scene gets more horrific with the invasion by a group of riders of camels, horses, and mules, driving their animals at top speed into the packed crowds. The Report goes on to describe those events which it calls "The Camel Battle" as the most frightening of all the other illegal acts committed by the fallen regime. The riders of those animals, most of whom came from Nazlet El-Samman, near the Giza Pyramids, were armed with thick bamboo sticks, long knives, swords and iron bars. They breached the iron barriers which were erected to protect the Tahrir occupiers, and proceeded to cause indiscriminate death and injury.
In self defence, the demonstrators ripped up street pavements and hurled their broken stones at their attackers. During that melee, the demonstrators detained some of the camel riders and other infiltrators. From their IDs they found that they were either police forces dressed in civilian clothes or were members of the National Democratic Party, the then-ruling party of former President Mubarak. The detainees were delivered by their civilian captors to the armed forces with whom the Fact-Finders were in communication to document that important report.
The Fact-Finders also documented what was beamed by bullhorns. The leaders of those anti-deomcracy throngs described the peaceful demonstrators as mercenaries, turncoats, traitors and non-thinking hordes who were misled by Dr. El-Baradei, Ayman Nour and other anti-dictatorship icons. The anti-democracy throngs were urged, the Fact-Finders pointed out, to "liberate Tahrir Square from the traitors who want for Egypt only destruction."
The Report contained a copy of a document carrying the logo of the Interior Ministry under the heading: "Secret and Very Important." The document, which is not yet authenticated, is said to contain orders "to hire Baltagiahs (thugs) to create chaos and to be generously paid." That document was referred to Egypt's Attorney General for further investigation.
Dealing with the remaining issues, namely extra judicial arrests and the security breakdown in Egypt, the Fact-Finding Commission declared in its Report the following:
- The Police placed under arrest without legal cause many of the demonstrators and media personnel who were reporting on the events of those history-changing 18 days in early 2011. Those detainees were kept for varying periods at various detention centers.
- The security breakdown was brought about through the use by the Ministry of Interior of Baltagiahs who were activated in various areas of Cairo and Giza. The regular police forces have left the scenes of these clashes between the thugs and the pro-democracy protesters Thus the Baltagiahs were enabled to destroy public and private property, after committing acts of pillage. Some of the police stations were reported to have been burnt by arsonists from within the ranks of those hired thugs.
January 25, 2013 marks the 2nd anniversary of the Egyptian Revolution. Two years have already gone by. Yet the revolutionary cataclysm and its reverberations are not yet over. When would they be over? Nobody knows!! But barring interference by the army, the march towards freedom and democratic rule shall eventually be impossible to reverse.
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